With darkness descending and heavy rain just minutes away, no one blinked when home-plate umpire Ed Bruno notified both Nor-Gwyn and host King of Prussia that the bottom of the fifth inning would be the last played at Upper Merion High School Wednesday night.

No one blinked because the Packers were on top by six runs and there was no way the Cannons would be making a comeback.

Approximately 10 minutes later, however, the Packers were hanging on by their fingertips as the Cannons trailed by a run with one out and two men aboard.

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Ultimately, the Packers prevailed, 6-5, just as the storm clouds opened up.

And no one on the Nor-Gwyn side of the field was feeling anything but relief.

“Mother Nature helped us out,” said Nor-Gwyn manager Tony (Pep) DiBricida. “Between the darkness and the rain, we were able to hang on.”

“We’re kind of in a fight for that last (playoff) spot right now,” said Cannons manager Chris Messmer, “so this would have been a big one.“But that’s baseball.”

For four-and-a-half innings, the Packers had things their way.

While left-hander Kevin McGovern kept the Cannons off the scoreboard, allowing just two hits and no one past second base over four innings, Nor-Gwyn got to King of Prussia starter Chris Ryder in the third inning.

A walk to Anthony Martawana, a bunt single by Ryan Dolan and Mike Villari’s single loaded the bases with nobody out.

Darryl Clark then doubled to the base of the left-center field fence to chase home two runs. Mike Knipe and Bobby Filler followed with sacrifice flies, and the visitors led, 4-0.

Two more runs followed in the top of the fifth via an Eric Lewandowski RBI single and a bases-loaded hit batter.

And the Packers and McGovern rolled into the bottom of the fifth and final inning perfectly prepared to close it out.

But that memo somehow did not find its way to the King of Prussia bench.

Rob Friskey walked to open the inning, then Alex DiGenova was safe when Packers shortstop Ryan Dolan fielded his ground ball and unsuccessfully attempted to force Friskey at second.

After Joe Lubanski singled home Friskey, and moved up to second on the throw to the plate, DiBricida came for McGovern.

“I wanted him to face Lubanski, but he was near the end of his rope anyway,” DiBricida said, “so I brought in Beau (Zeigler) to face (Andrew) Beshenich.”

Zeigler got behind Beshenich, 2-0, then came with a fastball and Beshenich deposited it over the left-field fence. King of Prussia was within, 6-4.

“I was looking for a fastball, period,” Beshenich said.

Mark Malantonio then walked and pinch-hitter Pete Lopez reached on an error by shortstop Dolan, who did not begin the game at short.

“Our regular shortstop, Anthony Martawana, had a sore arm, so I switched him and (second baseman) Dolan.

“It was an innocent move that wound up hurting us.

But first Zeigler helped himself by picking Malantonio off second with a move that had the King of Prussia bench screaming balk.

“It’s called an inside move,” DiBricida said, “and Beau has been using it since college. He does it so well, it’s hard to see.”

“You can’t let an umpire’s call make the difference,” said Messmer, refusing to use the controversial call as an excuse. “You have to take care of business.”

The pickoff came back to hurt when John Campbell followed with a single that likely would have plated Malantonio. King of Prussia scored one more run on another Packers error. But Zeigler got pinch-hitter Jason Argue on a pop out and caught Friskey looking, and the Packers could exhale.

“I said things were going to start turning around for us, and they are,” said DiBricida, after Nor-Gwyn’s first three-game win streak of the year.

“We had a fast start and now we’re struggling,” Messmer said, “and (Nor-Gwyn) started out slowly and now they’re turning it around.”